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I am from Drumchapel, Glasgow, of Scots and Irish descent. I am an experienced creative writing teacher and facilitator and former Chartered Librarian. My fiction tackles contemporary issues, e.g. isolation, abortion, alcoholism. It has been described as "hallucinatory urban realism" (Suhayl Saadi). I also write biography/memoir, and about the natural world. My short fiction and poetry have appeared in Gutter, Mslexia, From Glasgow to Saturn, Istanbul Review, Daily Telegraph, The Herald, Chapman, Cencrastus and Wasafiri.
Second Chances, my ebook on living with Addison's Disease, is published by PotHole Press. I taught creative writing through The Open University from 2004-2018 and am now particularly interested in offering fiction, poetry, and life writing workshops. I am also available to give readings of my own work and as a competition judge.
Key achievements include:
Winner of the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship 2010
Winner of the Booktown Writers' Short Story Competition 2012
Magnetic North Space/Time residency 2018
Shortlisted for the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction 2019
MLitt in Creative Writing, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, 2001
Finalist, Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition 2002
Aberdeen City; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; Edinburgh City; Falkirk; Fife; Glasgow City; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian
Adult learners; People experiencing mental health problems; Prisoners & young offenders; Vulnerable adults
Topics of work
Biography & memoir; Class & society; Contemporary fiction; Drug addiction, alcoholism & substance abuse; Editing & editing your own work; Health including mental health & wellbeing; Nature; Self-publishing & independent publishing
